Unsustainable Working Conditions: The Association of Destructive Leadership, Use of Technology, and Workload with Workaholism and Exhaustion
Open accessAbstract
Job demands typical of the current working environments and negative leadership styles may be considered unsustainable factors able to decrease workers well-being. Moreover, contrary to the idea that workaholism is an innate individual characteristic, a recent perspective considers the working context able to foster its insurgence. In order to investigate unsustainable dynamics within organizations, this study aimed at examining whether (1) destructive leadership increases workload and supplemental work supported by technology, (2) the three job demands increases workaholism, and (3) workaholism mediates their relationship with exhaustion. A convenience sample of 432 workers filled in a self-report questionnaire. The structural equation model results showed a positive relationship between destructive leadership and workload, off-work hour Technology-Assisted Job Demand (off-TAJD), and workaholism. Moreover, both workload and off-TAJD partially mediated the relationship between destructive leadership and workaholism. Finally, workaholism was a mediator between the three demands and exhaustion. The study confirmed a positive association between job demands and workaholism, and, in turn, their association with exhaustion, highlighting in particular the role of two under-investigated determinants, namely destructive leadership and off-TAJD, as unsustainable working conditions. Despite limitations, above all the cross-sectional design, this study provided useful indications for research and practice.
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Leadership can influence technostress indirectly by altering individual resources such as autonomy, workaholism, and recovery.
“For instance, by altering individual resources like autonomy (Bartsch et al. 2021;Dolce et al. 2020), workaholism (Molino et al. 2019), and recovery (Dolce et al. 2020).”
From Leadership and technostress: A systematic literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Molino et al. 2019
The Abstract and Discussion report that destructive leadership is associated with workaholism, and that workaholism mediates its relationship with exhaustion. This supports the workaholism portion attributed to Molino et al., but the paper does not establish workaholism as a pathway from leadership to technostress. The other cited resources, autonomy and recovery, are not attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDestructive leadership enhances off-work hour technology-assisted job demands.
“Destructive leadership enhances off-work hour technology-assisted job demands.Workload fully mediated the relationship between destructive leadership and emotional exhaustion.The effect of destructive leadership, workload, and off-work hour technology-assisted job demands on exhaustion was mediated by workaholism”
From Leadership and technostress: A systematic literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Molino et al. (2019)
The Results report a significant positive association between destructive leadership and off-work hours technology-assisted job demand (off-TAJD). The Discussion says destructive leadership may increase employees’ perception of requests to work outside normal hours, but the claim’s unqualified “enhances” implies a causal effect that the paper does not establish. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredWorkload fully mediates the relationship between destructive leadership and emotional exhaustion.
“Destructive leadership enhances off-work hour technology-assisted job demands.Workload fully mediated the relationship between destructive leadership and emotional exhaustion.The effect of destructive leadership, workload, and off-work hour technology-assisted job demands on exhaustion was mediated by workaholism”
From Leadership and technostress: A systematic literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Molino et al. (2019)
The Results report that workload fully mediated the relationship between destructive leadership and exhaustion (β = 0.10, p < 0.05). However, the Measures section identifies the outcome as exhaustion measured with the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory; it does not establish that the modeled outcome was specifically emotional exhaustion. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe effect of destructive leadership, workload, and off-work hour technology-assisted job demands on exhaustion is mediated by workaholism.
“Destructive leadership enhances off-work hour technology-assisted job demands.Workload fully mediated the relationship between destructive leadership and emotional exhaustion.The effect of destructive leadership, workload, and off-work hour technology-assisted job demands on exhaustion was mediated by workaholism”
From Leadership and technostress: A systematic literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Molino et al. (2019)
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Sorted by citations
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- Authors
- Molino, M., Cortese, C. G., & Ghislieri, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Turin (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Cortese, Claudio G.
- Venue
- Sustainability
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2019-01-16
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 446
- ISSN
- 2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2908901600
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 14.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Institutional Research Information System University of Turin (University of Turin) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Workaholism, burnout, and well-being
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Keywords
- destructive leadership, workaholism, exhaustion, workload, job demands, employee well-being, mediation
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